Dissecting a Lie

“If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. Period. If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan. Period.” President Barack Obama, 2009-2013.

Both of these statements are demonstrably untrue, as many Americans who liked their doctors and/or liked their insurance plans have learned they cannot keep either. Cancellation notices from insurance companies approach 4 million, and likely will level off at around 14 million, and it’s too early to tell how many people won’t be able to keep their doctors – but it’s undeniable that many won’t.

So it’s a fact that the President’s repeated statements about your doctor and health insurance are and were not true. Now whether the President lied is a little harder to discern, because it requires knowing what the President thought or knew when he (repeatedly) made his now infamous statements. Did the President know when he made the statements that they were untrue? Only the President knows for sure but there’s ample evidence showing that he know or should have known that the statements weren’t true:

““The [HHS] Departments’ mid-range estimate is that 66 percent of small employer plans and 45 percent of large employer plans will relinquish their grandfather status by the end of 2013,” wrote the administration on page 34,552 of the [June 2010 Federal] Register. All in all, more than half of employer-sponsored plans will lose their “grandfather status” and become illegal. According to the Congressional Budget Office, 156 million Americans—more than half the population—was covered by employer-sponsored insurance in 2013.”

And how to explain the President’s new statement about his previous statements: “What I said was, if you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan…if it hasn’t changed since Obamacare became law.” (paraphrased). The President would have us believe that that’s what he’s been saying all along. But the simple question for the President is, “When? When did you say that?” Prior to Monday, November 4, 2013, the President never included a qualifier, footnote, further explanation, etc. after his “Period.” The President never said “if…” But the President now tells us he did. When? So it’s clear and undeniable that the President’s statement on November 4, 2013 was a lie. As for all of the President’s statements prior to November 4, 2013, the President could have and should have known that those statements weren’t true. That’s the standard to which we hold leaders in the private sector. Why should we expect less from “leaders” in the public sector? And as for the President’s statement made November 4, 2013, that was a lie – demonstrably untrue and the President clearly knew it.

It should matter to everyone that we have a President who lies so casually and repeatedly solely for personal and political gain.

A real apology would have sounded like this: “I’m sorry my statements weren’t true.” But apparently that’s too much to expect from the President. It’s a sad state of affairs that this is how far the Office of President has fallen under this President.